BTV’s autonomy stays trapped in red tape

Trackback URL

Download PDF

The government initiative to make the state-run Bangladesh Television (BTV) an autonomous media outlet has been caught up in a maze of red tape through formations of committees, sub-committees and a lengthy evaluation process by those.

Sources in BTV and the information ministry said chances of granting the autonomy in the near future is slim as policymakers are convinced that there should be a TV channel to promote the government’s own policies and views.

“Also we need to check news and other programmes that might have adverse impact on viewers’ minds and destabilise the country,” said a member of the sub-committee recently formed to deal with the autonomy granting process.

He said although two committees are dealing with the matter now, there is a hint from the higher authorities that the move for granting the autonomy will ultimately not be successful at least in the current round.

Additional Secretary to the Information Ministry Mamunur Rashid Chowdhury is heading a committee, where the other members are director generals (DG) of BTV and Bangladesh Betar, deputy director general (DDG) news of BTV, and a joint secretary and a deputy secretary (broadcast) to the information ministry.

But the committee has been inactive after a sub-committee was formed comprising DG BTV and DG Betar to evaluate the whole process and to make necessary recommendations.

The members of the committees are expected to visit Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan to see the functions of the autonomous TV channels there.

The sub-committee held a meeting in BTV complex on Saturday where former DGs of the state-run TV channel and top officials of private TV channels were present.

“That is nothing but a ploy for making the process lengthy in the name of holding meetings,” said a news producer of BTV adding, “There was no need for forming the sub-committee.”

He said none, excepting some people in BTV, is in favour of granting the autonomy.

The draft proposal prepared by the information ministry regarding BTV’s autonomy was recently sent back by the council of advisers, directing the ministry to bring some amendments to it.

A source in BTV told The Daily Star that the draft was prepared in such a way that it would not be accepted in the cabinet.

After the present government had taken the initiative last year to grant BTV autonomy, a group of bureaucrats opposed the idea saying the country has a number of private TV channels over which the government has no control.

“They convinced the authorities that at least one state-run TV channel should be there,” a source in BTV said.

Information Secretary Osman Jamil is however hopeful that BTV will get both functional and financial autonomy, turning it into a standard professional TV channel.

“The draft proposed a limited autonomy. The cabinet sent it back as the government is committed to granting full autonomy,” he told The Daily Star last week.

Although BTV is a profit making body, no effective step has yet been taken to free it from the pernicious control of various government quarters.

Ministers, lawmakers and bureaucrats used BTV in the past for their own gains turning it into the most unpopular channel in the country, although it reaches almost 90 percent of the population due to its terrestrial facility.

After the military backed caretaker government assumed power, an intelligence agency started using BTV for pushing its favoured news and programmes in various ways.

The information ministry sources said initially the government wanted to grant autonomy to both BTV and Bangladesh Betar, but for reasons unknown Betar was later dropped. “Betar will be included again,” a ministry official however said.

In May last year, former law and information adviser Mainul Hosein announced that the interim government will grant autonomy to BTV and Betar. He then said a governing body with statuary power comprised of experienced persons from various sections of the society will administer the two media outlets.

Earlier on July 17, 2001 two acts were also enacted in this regard which have remained shelved so far.

There was also a committee to implement the initiative, but it failed to make any headway.

The government however still seems to be working to grant full autonomy to BTV through bringing necessary amendments to the proposal and by adding new provisions to the acts.

Both of the major political parties, BNP and Awami League (AL) which ruled the country alternately since 1991, pledged to grant autonomy to Bangladesh Betar and BTV before elections, but none of them kept their promises after coming to power.

Both the parties and their recent predecessor, military ruler HM Ershad, used the state-run media unabashedly as the mouthpiece for their governments, without any regard to even a semblance of neutrality.

Granting autonomy to Betar and BTV was also one of the main promises in the joint declaration announced on November 19, 1990 by three political alliances, after the fall of Ershad regime.

Leave a Reply